DOI Artikel:
Smorąg Różycka, Małgorzata: ‘She begged the child: Let me embrace thee, Lord!’ A Byzantine icon with the Virgin Eleousa in the Poor Clares Convent in Cracow
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44936#0009
8
2. The Virgin Eleousa, 1300 (?) (detail). Photo: ƒ. Podlecki
some areas of the painting (halos) had been decorated
with metal revetments and probably also with crowns.14
The faces have been very well preserved and some minor
craquelures do not obliterate their soft features, modelled
using tonal light effects [Fig. 2]. The Virgins distinctive
eyes, set beneath the arcs of her eyebrows, are delicate-
ly shaded. She has a straight nose, prominent lips and
rounded chin. Minute light-coloured hatchings in the
corners of her eyes, above the upper lip and on the chin
delicately brighten up the face. The equally distinctive
eyes of the Child are more circular than those of his moth-
er, his nose is shorter and slightly upturned, and the shape
of his face is more rounded. Particularly noticeable are
the Virgins hands with long, slim fingers and beautifully
delineated nails. The best preserved fragments of Marys
maphorion and the Childs chiton reveal soft folds: more
numerous on the Virgins right shoulder, in her bent arm
as well as on the Childs left sleeve, where they are mod-
elled by means of subtle passages from darker tones in the
furrows to lighter ones on bulging parts, which are ad-
ditionally brightened up with white highlights. Even the
more substantial losses to the paint layer in some parts do
not obscure the superb workmanship of the icon, which
was painted freely and with flair, manifesting the artists
full command of his craft. Also the exquisitely balanced
proportions of the figures can be appreciated, even though
the panel was likely truncated and the painted surface was
additionally reduced by the frame that was applied on top
of it. The palette, which is rather limited, consists of the
white and gold colours of the Childs garments and the
blue and red of the Virgins robes, as well as the beautiful
ochre hues in the flesh tones of both figures. Undoubtedly
the most prominent is the intense light-blue tone of the
Virgins maphorion. An analysis carried out during the
paintings conservation treatment has revealed that these
parts belong to the original paint layer and were executed
using azurite and lead white.15
THE BLUE MAPHORION
OF THE THEOTOKOS
In Byzantine art the robes of the Virgin are usually main-
tained in saturated tones of sapphire blue and dark pur-
ple, and often trimmed with gold. There was, however,
no uniform or fixed pattern that would assign particular
14 Ibidem, p. 11.
15 Ibidem, pp. 9-10, 35ff.
2. The Virgin Eleousa, 1300 (?) (detail). Photo: ƒ. Podlecki
some areas of the painting (halos) had been decorated
with metal revetments and probably also with crowns.14
The faces have been very well preserved and some minor
craquelures do not obliterate their soft features, modelled
using tonal light effects [Fig. 2]. The Virgins distinctive
eyes, set beneath the arcs of her eyebrows, are delicate-
ly shaded. She has a straight nose, prominent lips and
rounded chin. Minute light-coloured hatchings in the
corners of her eyes, above the upper lip and on the chin
delicately brighten up the face. The equally distinctive
eyes of the Child are more circular than those of his moth-
er, his nose is shorter and slightly upturned, and the shape
of his face is more rounded. Particularly noticeable are
the Virgins hands with long, slim fingers and beautifully
delineated nails. The best preserved fragments of Marys
maphorion and the Childs chiton reveal soft folds: more
numerous on the Virgins right shoulder, in her bent arm
as well as on the Childs left sleeve, where they are mod-
elled by means of subtle passages from darker tones in the
furrows to lighter ones on bulging parts, which are ad-
ditionally brightened up with white highlights. Even the
more substantial losses to the paint layer in some parts do
not obscure the superb workmanship of the icon, which
was painted freely and with flair, manifesting the artists
full command of his craft. Also the exquisitely balanced
proportions of the figures can be appreciated, even though
the panel was likely truncated and the painted surface was
additionally reduced by the frame that was applied on top
of it. The palette, which is rather limited, consists of the
white and gold colours of the Childs garments and the
blue and red of the Virgins robes, as well as the beautiful
ochre hues in the flesh tones of both figures. Undoubtedly
the most prominent is the intense light-blue tone of the
Virgins maphorion. An analysis carried out during the
paintings conservation treatment has revealed that these
parts belong to the original paint layer and were executed
using azurite and lead white.15
THE BLUE MAPHORION
OF THE THEOTOKOS
In Byzantine art the robes of the Virgin are usually main-
tained in saturated tones of sapphire blue and dark pur-
ple, and often trimmed with gold. There was, however,
no uniform or fixed pattern that would assign particular
14 Ibidem, p. 11.
15 Ibidem, pp. 9-10, 35ff.